Writer: Russell T. Davies
Director: Alice TroughtonCast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), Lesley Sharp (Sky Silvestry), Rakie Ayola (Hostess), David Troughton (Professor Hobbes), Ayesha Antoine (Dee Dee Blasco), Lindsey Coulson (Val Cane), Daniel Ryan (Biff Cane), Colin Morgan (Jethro Cane), Tony Bluto (Driver Joe) & Duane Henry (Mechanic Claude)
The Doctor takes a trip on a shuttle bus to see a Sapphire Waterfall, and encounters a frightening alien entity...This one will divide audiences! For the first 10 minutes "Midnight" is the usual mix of Russell T. Davies broad-stroke storytelling, with echoes of his "Voyage Of The Damned" special (sketchily-written people stuck aboard a terrorized vessel), but then things get considerably more interesting. It doesn't quite gel together, or even end particularly well, but for a good chunk of its runtime... the tension and claustrophobia is enough for this episode to lodge in your brain and unsettle...
"Midnight" finds The Doctor (David Tennant) and Donna (Catherine Tate) on the same-named inhospitable planet, which is home to a leisure complex (lowered to the surface from orbit, we learn.) Donna opts to stay inside by a pool and get a sun tan, while The Doctor boards a shuttle bus to see a famous Sapphire Waterfall. Unfortunately, because the planet's soaked in dangerous sunlight at all times, the view is restricted and irritating entertainment pumped into the craft until they reach their destination.
But The Doctor disables the audio-visual distractions and suggests his fellow passengers actually talk to one another. Thus, we're introduced to Sky Silvestry (Lesley Sharp), the nameless Hostess (Rakie Ayola), planetary expert Professor Hobbes (David Troughton; son of Second Doctor Patrick Troughton), intellectual girl Dee Dee Blasco (Ayesha Antoine), mother Val Cane (Lindsey Coulson), her husband Biff (Daniel Ryan) and disinterested son Jethro (Colin Morgan).
In these early scenes, Davies' script shows every sign of becoming a tedious bore, populated by stereotyped characters in a situation that seems designed purely to save the budget. Yet, against expectation, once the threat is introduced (a mysterious knocking on the outside of the shuttle's hull, when the craft malfunctions and comes to a standstill) things quickly become very interesting. In restricting the story to one primary location, Davies has to rely on his skills with character and dialogue to entertain, and the early blandness is swept away thanks to the introduction of a genuinely creepy antagonist...
The villain of the piece is never explained (to Davies' great credit), but it's an entity that infiltrates the shuttle bus and proceeds to "possess" Sky -- initially making her repeat whatever anyone else says. It's strange, slightly amusing and weird behaviour, but The Doctor is keen to help this alien learn to "communicate". However, when Sky synchronizes her dialogue with that of the other passengers -- eerily predicting every word they say, without a split-second's delay -- things become twice as frightening. What does this alien want? Why has it possessed one of them? And how is it able to copy peoples' speech so precisely?
As even The Doctor struggles to find answers, fears amongst his fellows passengers escalate and they begin to debate throwing Sky out of the airlock. As The Doctor pleads with them not to start condoning murder as a knee-jerk reaction to witnessing something unexplained, the others quickly start to question The Doctor's role in this nightmare...
As a stranger with a great deal of opinions and authoritative nature, can he be trusted? This is perhaps the most interesting facet of "Midnight", as Davies subverts the idea that characters immediately trust and help The Doctor. What really works about this episode is seeing characters react badly towards The Doctor's presence, particularly once Sky starts to only synch her speech with the Time Lord, and eventually moves on to possess him instead...
While clearly "filler" material (focused on one simple set, Donna only bookending the story, FX reduced to a few panoramas), there's a lot to be said for how "Midnight" uses its restrictions to its advantage. Once Davies settles into the frightening middle-section, he doesn't put a foot wrong. The situation is scary, tense, atmospheric and brilliantly acted. Lesley Sharp was particularly strong as Sky, crouching insect-like in the shuttle's corner, parrotting everyone else. It's a mesmerising performance of a very freaky, simple idea -- and Sharp delivers the requisite chills. The other characters stay fairly two-dimensional throughout, but Troughton is good as the concerned academic, and Coulson makes a great shouty mother concerned for her family's safety.
The episode's rushed climax is both a positive and a negative: the fact "Midnight" refused to explain the villain's motives or identity added to its overall mystique, while also giving the story the vibe of a surreal dream. But it also proves slightly unsatisfying and (beyond a brief flash of Rose Tyler on a video-screen) the repercussions of this episode won't be felt anywhere. So yes; it's a "bottle show" and a budget-saving exercise at heart (simultaneously filmed with next week's "Turn Left"), but it also proves Russell T. Davies can write more interesting, left-field episodes if he's challenged.
Overall, "Midnight" is definitely one of Doctor Who's stranger episodes, but I was bewitched and unsettled by the captivating 20-minutes in the middle. The opening wasn't particularly strong, and the ending did seem rather forced, but Lesley Sharp's insidious performance, coupled with a genuine sense of threat for an out-of-his-depth Doctor (by this bizarre alien and the suspicious, frightened crew) was armchair-gripping stuff.
14 June 2008
BBC1, 7.10 pm
